


Yin & Yang

by J_Lucy_Daisuke



Series: The Happy Family Series [1]
Category: Keroro Gunsou | Sgt. Frog
Genre: Family, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2018-12-31 13:37:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12133638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_Lucy_Daisuke/pseuds/J_Lucy_Daisuke
Summary: Kururu's newest invention, the creation of a super soldier, sends ripples through the platoon--Especially Giroro. How is the team going to adjust to this predicament, especially when it goes in a direction not even Kururu could have expected?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay! Welcome to Yin & Yang, the beginning of my Keroro fanfic series. I originally wrote this in 2008(!) I'm going to be editing and uploading chapters at a steady rate, so please enjoy and thank you! 
> 
> Cover art by the lovely Poppun --Please visit her tumblr (poppun-chan.tumblr.com) and DA account for some really adorable artwork! : )

"Doraemmooonnnnnn!" Came a bellow down the long metal hallway.

"Ku ku... Yes, Nobita?" The little yellow scientist didn't miss a beat, nor did he look away from the numerous screens in front of him, all which flickered back different points from the Hinata house. Natsumi was listening to her radio... Dororo was hidden among the rafters again, crying or... Kururu didn't really care. Aki was at work, pulling another triple shift, while Fuyuki and Tamama remained glued to the television... It was all incredibly tedious, incredibly ordinary, and in Kururu's eyes, incredibly boring.

"I need your help!"

Ah, being needed. He may not have been a superstar among the group, but Kururu always enjoyed the opportunity to show off.

"Kukuku... Eh, and what is it now?" He could have some fun with this, Kururu thought with another trilling laugh as he turned around his chair and came face-to-face with the energetic Sergeant.

He had already agreed before Keroro finished his first sentence, but allowed the green frog to continue all the same. It was probably good he got out some of his energy this way.  
After finishing his rather high-pitched and bothersome speech, having worked himself into a good pant, Keroro stood there, awaiting an answer.

"Kuku... Anything for you, fearless leader... But this will cost you." Kururu noted the sergeant's smile quickly fell at this news, and was quick to add. "I don't want money from you."

"All right! I'm in!" Keroro shouted and clasped together his hands. "Kururu, Kururu, you little yellow genius, how can I ever pay you back?"

Kururu gave another laugh and leaned back, folding his hands behind his head. "Well..." Anyone with a working conscience would have been unnerved at the yellow devil's laugh; Keroro's was clouded by pure energy and excitement, and the green platoon leader was quick to agree.

 

"You WHAT?"

"G-Giroro Gocho, you know you scream way too much, i-it can't be healthy,:" Keroro chuckled, holding up his hands in defense. Bad move not covering his face instead; moments later there was a gun pointed square in-between his eyes. "N-now it's just one little get together!"

"You sold me to the devil!" Giroro snarled, not paying mind Kururu, Tamama, and Mois's presence in the meeting room. He had jumped over the desk and now stood on it, glaring down the gun at Keroro.

"Giroro Gocho, I think I'm a bit offended, kuku..." came a chuckle. Kururu was obviously amused by this, and Tamama looked back at the sergeant major with worry. "You really think I'll be that bad of a date?"

"It's all going towards the invasion, Giroro Gocho!" Keroro reassured the corporal, who eased back a bit. "Kururu Socho's onto something, that was the only catch!"

"I don't trust you," Giroro spat, now turned back to Kururu.

"If my intent was to use you in an experiment I would've just abducted you, ku ku ku..." Kururu replied, looking as calm as ever as he spoke.

Giroro gave a growl and jumped down from the desk, and walked past Kururu and Tamama. He glared at the intelligence expert, stopping momentarily. "If this is some trick, I'll have your head."

"I'll see you at six," Kururu replied with a yawn and a stretch.

"...I've never seen him this upset, not in a long time," Tamama admitted after Giroro had gone.

"Pffft, Pekopon's made a drama queen out of him." Keroro waved his hand at this and brushed off the statement. "Now, on to more important things!"

"Could you say, a complete turnaround?" Mois chimed in.

"...Giroro-kun..." A small gentle voice came from the rafters, and the white tile above replaced itself silently.

 

"...A dinner date! He's crazier than anyone lets on, he should've been let go a long time ago," Giroro grumbled the whole way back to his tent. He then sighed and collapsed on one of the cinder blocks that surrounded the fire he tended to... Of all the damned luck, to finally get a date on Pekopon and it was with... That thing.

He sulked outside until finally six in the evening rolled around, and he trudged back to the base... If it was for the good of the invasion...

He couldn't bring himself to even speak to Natsumi; he felt as though he were cheating on her, in a way. He looked as though he was on his way to a funeral as he finally did make it down to Kururu's lab. He wanted nothing more than to shoot out the eyes of the facade on the front of the lab... Knock out the teeth, burn the entire thing to the ground and dance happily in its ashes.

"Kuku, how nice you could come." Kururu had set up a table in the middle of where he usually did a majority of his work.

"...Don't speak to me. Don't even look at me," Giroro seethed as he took a seat at the table. The indignity of his situation rose as he felt Kururu push in the chair, and Giroro clutched onto the edges of the seat; he knew with a little more pressure he would snap the box of the chair clear in half.

Kururu took a seat across from Giroro and folded his hands, then allowed his chin to rest on his hands. "So... Was the trip a rough one?"

"You have no idea," Giroro answered, taking a sip of water cautiously from a glass and taking the opportunity to take in the table spread and the surroundings. Some sort of music was playing in the background... Enka, he was sure Pekoponians referred to it. Slower music, usually played in bars or in old smoky hangouts. Characteristically uncool for Kururu, Giroro noted.

The table was spread and was actually quite nice... A candle in the middle, a pitcher with some sort of liquid, possibly tea... Giroro wasn't too certain. He was on high alert, dealing with Kururu. It was the same Kururu who had turned him into an ogre, a dog, and subjected him to numerous other horrid experiments over the years.

"Kukuku, eat up, it took me all afternoon," Kururu insisted, moving a hand over to the tray-covered plate in front of Giroro.

Giroro looked this over suspiciously, and Kururu laughed, "I understand you not trusting me, I don't really have a reputation for my kindness, do I?"

"The exact opposite," Giroro grumbled, and went to remove the cover from the plate. He winced a bit as he noticed the sharpness of the metal handle, and looked down at his own hand, which had a small cut on it as a result.

"Do you need a bandage?" Kururu leaned forward a bit to inspect the wound.

"No," Giroro answered quickly, dabbing the wound with a napkin. "There's some blood on the lid..."

"What do I care? I have a machine to wash it." Kururu shrugged. "I'm not like Teicho; I don't take joy in chores."

Come to think of it, Giroro didn't have a clue what Kururu liked... Sure, there was curry, music, inventions, and tormenting... Kururu loved tormenting Giroro, for one reason or another...

"You've got your thinking face on; that's a new one," Kururu muttered, taking a bite of the curry on his plate.

Giroro looked down at his own plate; curry, of course it was curry. But after taking a reluctant bite, Giroro frowned in confusion, "Did you... Put sweet potatoes in this?"

"I'm a genius; you think I couldn't have incorporated a sweet potato into a meal?" Kururu snorted.

Dinner was mainly in silence, and by the end of it all Giroro was no less on edge.

"Kururu... What's the reason for all of this?" Giroro demanded, looking offward while the mad scientist gave a cackle followed by a sip of water from his glass.

"I suppose I was lonely." Giroro nearly fell out of his chair at an answer this simple, and looked Kururu over critically. "Even I like a change of pace, Giroro-kun... Kuku... Now, if you don't mind, I need my beauty sleep. I've been up three days straight, any longer and I could become irritable."

Giroro nodded this and slipped out of his seat and then, "I suppose then... Thank you."

The scientist said nothing, only stood from his own chair and walked off, leaving Giroro to wander back to his own tent, puzzled. He then eyed the tray lid, the one Giroro had cut his hand on, and lifted it up, giving a menacing grin and a loud, long cackle.

 

Little was seen of Kururu in the following weeks, much less than usual. When he was seen, it was usually sleeping in his chair or a hammock in his lab. Not only that, packages had begun to arrive for him in the mail, several at a time for days straight. They were unmarked, and Giroro was unfamiliar with the sender.

So life went on as usual. Three more plans sounded like a good idea, all to only fail horribly, each worse that the other. By the third failure, Giroro found himself in need of a splint, but fresh out of bandages. The house was also clean out; as much damage as Natsumi inflicted on all of them, especially Keroro, this was no surprise.

"That lunatic probably has some," Giroro muttered, looking down at his sore arm. Who knew that Pekoponian dolphins could put up so much of a fight?

It was his first trip to Kururu's by himself since the bizarre date all those weeks ago... It was no less eerie traveling there by himself, and he was irked as he found Kururu not in his usual seat.

He was about to turn to leave when he became aware of a wailing. Giroro was quick to snap into soldier mode and followed the cries, gun in hand. He didn't realize the blue streak following close behind him.

"Kururu?" Giroro slid into the room, the pinpointed source of the wailing, and stopped dead. His blood chilled, and the room swayed a bit as he looked about the decorations; all of the pastel pinks, blues, and yellows. Decorations on the walls of adorable Pekoponian creatures, such as ducks, puppies, and kittens... A window in the middle of one wall, which was clearly screen that projected the view outside of one of the Hinatas' own windows, a crib beneath it with a matching mobile swaying dully around.

The floor was pink carpeted, and the rest of the room had white furniture, including a rocker, which Kururu himself sat in, holding a pink bundle. He was singing a song about a love for curry to the bundle.

"Giroro...kun?" Dororo stopped short, also becoming frozen in place as he came upon the sight. "Kururu-dono?"

"Kururu... W-what is all this?" Giroro demanded, taking a few steps into the room.

"Kukuku... Not so loud, you'll wake her up again. I had a mistake in the lab..."

"That... That's one large mistake. A Keronian infant?" Giroro looked down at the light red, almost salmon-colored infant. She was now sleeping, a binky in her mouth and a purple skullcap on her head, with light pink earmuffs. "Who... Who's is she?"

"Kukuku... She's a Keron super-soldier, a combination of brains and brawn; my best work to date. At least I hope so, with the effort it took."

"Y-You're her father?" Giroro sputtered. For once, Dororo didn't mind going unnoticed as he watched from the doorway.

"If we want to be technical, I'm more of her mother, kuuukuku. Kururu apparently got a bit of amusement from this fact.

"T-then who's the father?" Giroro questioned.

"The number one sharpshooter on Keron, kuku," Kururu answered with a quiet chuckle, looking dead ahead at Giroro as he spoke.

"..." the pastel room spun, and within moments, Giroro was on the floor of it.


	2. Chapter 2

Giroro came to on the Hinatas' living room couch, and nearly jumped to the ceiling as he woke to Natsumi reviving holding a warm towel to his head.

"Gero, how nice of you to finally join us, Giroro Gocho!" Keroro said with a grin.

Oh, how Giroro's head was pounding. Oh, how he wanted to wipe that smack clear off of Keroro's face and laugh about it. Giroro sat up, secretly fortunate to at least be rid of the nightmare.

Then the familiar wailing made him realize that it indeed was not a dream.

There was Kururu, holding the same bundle, while Tamama looked on curiously and Mois smiled at the infant.

"Could you say, a little angel?" Mois grinned.

"Kuku, don't touch her," Kururu replied curtly as Mois went to take the infant's hand.

"Gero... So what is that, exactly, Kururu Socho? A type of robot spy?" Keroro grinned as he turned his attention to the sergeant major.

"Kukuku, no, Teicho, a real infant," Kururu answered.

"Oh, I-GERO!" Keroro yelped.

The little girl only cried louder.

"Idiot! Keep the noise down!" Giroro took a schoolbook from the coffee table and threw it at Keroro's head. Direct hit.

"Socho, when did you get a girlfriend? And how could she be so mean to leave you alone with a baby!?" Tamama gasped as he looked into the blue eyes of the little Keron infant. He was sizing her up, in reality. He had to know how big of a potential threat she could pose to him.

"Kukuku, no girlfriend, she's mine and..."

"Giroro, why'd you faint, anyway?" Natsumi asked as she took a seat beside him and tilted his head down to get a good look at the bruise.

"Because..." Giroro shut his eyes. How could he even start to explain it to her?

"Because it's his as well, kukuku," Kururu answered.

There was a collective "WHAT?" yelled throughout the living room, and the baby cried louder.

"Could you say, a surprisingly cute baby?" Mois said aloud, holding a hand to her face as she did so.

"But how...?" Fuyuki blinked, looked at the baby, then to Giroro. "Is that how it works?"

"Kuku, not usually," Kururu chuckled a bit maniacally. "Don't worry, it'll be explained to you when you're older."

"Giroro?" Natsumi saw where the corporal's face had flushed a deep shade of red. "How did you and Kururu...?"

"...It's a complicated process, not something you'd like to hear, kuku," Kururu laughed. "Do you want to hold her?"

"What?" Giroro snapped. But before he could protest, Kururu placed the small bundle on his lap. The blanket pulled away, revealing the mark on the little Keronian's belly; a full circle, half red and half yellow in a yin yang shape, with the red on top. She wore a diaper, and had a tadpole tail, like any other normal baby.

But she wasn't a normal baby.

"I need to have a talk with you," Giroro said sternly, his eyes narrowing as he looked upward at Kururu. "...Alone."

"Kukuku... It was expected. She needs a nap, anyway," Kururu answered, took the infant, and headed back to his lab.

"Gero... The room's still spinning..." Keroro muttered from his spot on the floor. "...What lovely birds..."

"Nee-chan, do you really think Kururu's telling the truth?" Fuyuki asked aloud.

"...Hard to tell," Natsumi admitted. "But why would Kururu even do something like this?"

 

 

 

Giroro watched silently as the infant was placed back in her crib and Kururu hit the mobile ever so slightly, causing it to spin around while she giggled happily.

"I didn't intend for this to happen," Kururu admitted. "There were a few oversights."

"What the hell did you put in that curry to make... THAT... Happen?" Giroro asked, pointing to the baby.

"I collected your DNA," Kururu answered with a shrug. "Combined it, and, kukuku... The result."

"Couldn't you have just gotten it some other way instead of submitting me to the date from hell?"

"Kuku, maybe I wanted to make sure you were the person I'd share my genetic makeup with. It's a very personal thing for someone like me to share."

"I'm so glad I had a say in this!" Giroro shouted, his voice falling to a whisper halfway as he remembered the baby in the room.

"Kukuku, well, like I said, not everything went to plan. I thought I'd run enough tests to know the outcome and I was almost convinced I could make her and then use the "do it all over again" gun to age her, and have a super-solider worthy of invading Pekopon."

"What went wrong?" Giroro asked, truly curious about this.

"Kukuku, as she is now, her older self is neither a super genius or superb fighter. In fact, she's depressingly average in everything." Kururu nearly outwardly flinched as he spoke this. "...I thought I'd tweaked everything just right too."

"Idiot. Shows you can't go playing God like that," Giroro snorted and folded his arms. "Serves you right for messing with my DNA anyhow... So, what do we do with her? I know you, you could've swept this under the rug and never had told me."

"You really think I'd resort to that? Kuku! Honestly, the thought crossed my mind, but it's hard even for someone as heartless as me when you have your own eyes staring back at you."

"...So you're not totally heartless afterall. Heh."

"Tch. Don't mistake it as emotion, Senpai."

"...A name would be a good place to start," Giroro said after a bit of thought.

"Noriri?" "Kuku, nori?" Kururu chuckled. "Like seaweed?"

"Ugh. Eh, maybe not, then... Kirere."

"I can live with that." Kururu shrugged indifferently. "Funny, I would have figured you'd relate it to that Pekoponian girl... Kukuku, you know, some girls like a man who's good with children."

Giroro said nothing to this, but grit his teeth. This had set him back miles from Natsumi, he knew it... At the same time, sharing babysitting with her... Maybe there was a positive to come out of this, afterall.

"Gero gero ge! So it's true, then! Not just a result of blunt-force trauma!" Came a familiar laugh from outside the door. It wasn't long after Keroro entered, followed by Tamama and Dororo. No one paid much mind to Dororo. "

And she's so cute, too! Her eyes look a little like Pururu-chan's..."

"What do you want, you grinning idiot?" Giroro snapped. "And don't touch her."

"Gero? Giroro Gocho, what're you so grumpy about!?"

Keroro was now bending over the crib on his tip-toes to get a good look at the baby. "She's so cute! And her godfather will get her started early on learning about fine culture! Like Gunpla, for instance."

"Moron, what makes you think we'd make you the godfather!?" Giroro snorted.

"Oh, could she also have a godmother, then?" Mois ducked into the room just about as Tamama went to speak, and the black tadpole grit his teeth.

_"...Stupid... Woman...!"_ His mind screeched as his panting became heavy and he clenched his fists.

"Wha... What about me?" Dororo sniffed, but this went unnoticed.

"I say we throw the newest member of our platoon a welcoming party!" Keroro suggested.

"The first Keronian born on Pekopon! It's a big step on the long road to victory, Gentlemen!"

"...You're thinking this is going to look good enough for your raise, don't you?" Giroro asked plainly. Keroro said nothing to this, but kept his victorious stance.

"We better get those invitations out quickly!" Giroro's words had either gone unnoticed or ignored by Keroro; more than likely, ignored.

"Come on, Tamama Nitohei! You can be on envelopes! I'll write on the invitations, and Mois-dono can take care of the decorations!"

Dororo sniffed as he trudged out of the room.

"...I feel bad for her," Giroro admitted after watching the door close behind the manic ninja. He then turned his attention back to the crib, and looked in on the sleeping tadpole. She was surprisingly adorable, given her creepy "mother" and gruff "father".

"Kuku, your heart melt, Senpai?"

"Heh," Giroro muttered. "I'm going to stay in here a bit."

"I have a nap to take anyway, kukuku," Kururu admitted, followed by a yawn. "Cutting and pasting genetic code takes it out of a guy."

Giroro gave a nod and continued to look down in the crib even after Kururu had left. Kirere was sleeping once more; she had two modes, it seemed: scream and sleep. She wasn't that different from Keroro, really.

"I thought I'd find you here! Oh!" Natsumi's voice fell to a whisper as she entered the room. "Is she sleeping again?"

Giroro gave a nod. "The stress was a lot for her, I suppose."

"Giroro, what are you guys going to do with her?"

"Train her for her mission, of course." Giroro folded his arms and turned his back to the crib. "She can be trained to be the super-soldier, and help with the invasion of Pekopon. At this rate our mission will be complete in months. Hehehe, I hate to say it, but Kururu might have actually hit a goldmine with this idea."

"What if it's not what she wants?" Natsumi looked away from the baby to Giroro.

"Eh? There couldn't be a higher honor!"

"She's not a machine, you can't make her into something like that if she doesn't want to." It was apparent Natsumi was becoming a bit annoyed by this. "Isn't there something you always wanted to be?"

"...A man who carries out his missions. That's the only life for a man like me" Giroro answered as haughty as possible as he said this.

"...You're hopeless." Natsumi shook her head and walked toward the door. "I don't know how much help I can be, but if you need anything..."

"I can handle an infant. I've been in life or death situations, this will be a cakewalk in comparison!"

"But it's a half-Kururu baby," Natsumi added with a sigh of worry.

"Hehe... EH!" Giroro's blood ran cold at the memory of baby Kururu. The little monster, the devil spawn who had made that day a living hell for everyone. He then, shaking, looked back in at the sweet face in the crib.

There was no way she could be another potential Kururu...

Right?


	3. Chapter 3

"Kuku, I need the lab to myself for a bit." Kururu came out to Giroro's tent for a rare visit the following morning, Kirere wrapped in her pink blanket and sucking on her binky. On Kururu's one shoulder was a pink and white bag, the other the infant patted, until reaching up and taking hold of one of Kururu's headphones. She pulled it back, and then let go, allowing it to snap into place. The normally stoic scientist reeled back in pain from this.

Giroro took the girl from his hands and tried to hold back the laughter that welled up inside him at the sight of this, and then took the bag and set it on the ground. "What could you possibly-... Are you done being in pain now?"

"Neh." Kururu rubbed over the headphone and grumbled a bit to himself. "Too dangerous for this one."

"You're saying you care?"

"Kuku, well, I did put a lot of time into the project," Kururu admitted, now clearly back to his normal cool self.

"What do I... Do here...?" Giroro held out the baby, who laughed and squirmed in response to this.

"Amuse her," Kururu answered, turning to head back to his lab. "Try not to break anything on her. I'll be back later than you think."

"W-wait, Kururu!" But the yellow Keronian was already gone, leaving Giroro alone with the cooing baby. "Um..." He held her closer to himself and ducked into his tent, looking about for anything that would've been a good potential toy...

Grenades, guns, daggers; He really did own a lot of things that were dangerous for a baby... In fact, if there had been broken glass lining the floor, it would have been the last place to keep a baby.

"...L-let's take you out for a bit," Giroro was shaken after having a series of horrifying scenarios run through his mind. "Now where could we take you?..."

 

"How CUTE!" Koyuki squealed and clapped her hands together as she looked back down at the baby, who laid out on a mat and kicked about happily.

"I'm happy you thought of this as a safe place, Giroro-dono," Dororo sat on the steps of the home beside Giroro, both drinking tea and the red Keronian looking more than a little preoccupied with his own thoughts. "...Know that I have your back in this situation, no matter what."

"...I'm not even sure if Kururu's telling the truth. I can see where she's mine as well, but he's a trickster by profession, practically," Giroro muttered, bowing his head down. "You're all being incredibly cool about this."

Dororo gave a small laugh. "As much as we've been through, I suppose the unusual is commonplace here."

"...That lunatic's divided me into seven different people, made me someone's hand, a dog, and a slew of inanimate objects... But this is the worst of it. This is either an overly elaborate joke, or he's really done it this time."

"...Giroro-san, I think she needs a diaper change!" Koyuki called, noting the infant had suddenly begun to wail. Giroro's mind crashed back to attention, and he opened his eyes, and looked to Dororo. The blue ninja was nowhere to be found, but his half-empty cup of tea lay on the step, still steaming.

"Ehhh..." Giroro stood and walked over to Kirere, then looked her over as though he was assessing how to dismantle a bomb.

Koyuki gave a good-humored laugh as she noticed his predicament. "Nin!" with a flash, the diaper bag was opened, and the diaper changed.

"I... How did you...?"

"A secret ninja technique!" Koyuki winked and laughed.

Giroro's shoulders slumped, "I should have known. But thank you, all the same."

"I'll go throw away the garbage," Koyuki stated, and before Giroro could thank her she was gone, and Dororo stood there, teary-eyed and repentant.

"I failed you..." he sighed with defeat, bowing his head.  
"  
It's all right, it's not your responsibility, anyway." Giroro took a seat on the floor behind Kirere, and pulled out a plastic toy from the bag to dangle above her. It really wasn't much different from playing with his cat, he noted. "...I'm still getting used to a lot of this."

Dororo knelt down in front of the baby and laughed, "You get used to it. Children are one of nature's most valuable resources, no matter what planet, who or they come from!"

"You're not the one who has to change diapers, or looks and sees Kururu in there, too, when you look down at her."

"Well, maybe she inherited some of Socho's better qualities!"

Then both looked upward, Giroro's expression wondering 'what qualities?'.

"He's a very focused person, and doesn't let stress get to him easily!" Dororo suggested, even though her knew this was weak at best.

"He's selfish, arrogant, and mean-spirited," Giroro returned with a snap. "He's pure evil, he can't even stand anything relatively happy if it doesn't involve someone else being miserable."

"For being all of those things he certainly was able to decorate a nice nursery..."

"He probably bought a few magazines and got ideas that way," Giroro countered quickly. "...He made this mess."

"And you're going to support him, that's a noble spirit."

"Her. I'll support her. Whether she's mine or not. She's here now, and I don't abandon my men. If Kururu's lying, and this is a cousin of his or something, then he's a dead man. If he's telling the truth, then... We'll continue with the plan," Giroro replied, and lifted her up. "I'm going to take her home for a nap, if that creep doesn't like it then he'll have to deal, he's cause of all of this mess, anyway."

"Best of luck, Giroro-kun. If you need me, you know where I'll be."

"Unless I need a diaper changed."

"I'm ashamed that I agree," Dororo answered with the same happy expression unwavering upon what could be seen of his face.

Giroro huffed and was off back towards home, just as Koyuki returned. "Aw, he left with the Kirere-chan already?"

"Mm, she was getting tired... And I believe emotional exhaustion is starting to set in on him."

"Dororo! We should start right away on a gift to celebrate her birth!" Koyuki clenched her fist in determination, and Dororo stood and gave a nod.

"Yes, let's start!"

 

"...It better be good if he left me alone with you for the day," Giroro muttered to the baby as they returned home and he found the sun was getting ready to set before entering down into the lab, and back into her nursery. "...He's not lying, is he?... Damn it all... I'll get you a better mother, I promise. I have one in mind, a strong Pekoponian woman." 

Giroro stopped; Natsumi, a mother. The thought of her acting maternal made his face flush and his head begin to spin. He was only brought back to attention but Kirere, who started to squeal happily at the sight of Kururu.

"Kuku, she recognizes her mother already! Precious."

"Quit calling yourself that!" Giroro was pulled out of his daydream by Kururu's grating voice. "It's creepy to me and confusing to her, and the only reason I haven't killed you for it yet is because you're the one who knows the most about this mess!"

"Kuku, you shouldn't speak like that in front of the baby, it's bad enough her parents are unmarried!" Kururu continued, much to Giroro's horror.

"UGH!" Giroro cringed in horror, and it took him a few moments to recover from this. "...It's time for her to eat... As her mother I think you should get on that."

"Kukuku! Well, I did get my nap in..." Kururu gave a shrug at this and began to search through the shelves.

"That was you important work, a nap!?"

"You want me to work with dangerous machinery and chemicals half-asleep, Senpai?"

 

"Gero! What an adorable scene of serene Keronian life on Pekopon! An invader could get used to this!" Keroro grinned as he entered the baby's room. "I just wanted to let you know that the invitations have already been sent out, and we've already gotten a few replies!"

"From who?" Giroro felt compelled to ask; the idiot couldn't think of one decent invasion strategy, but if it was a party, he'd be the first one getting the decorations together.

"Let's see... " At this point Keroro retrieved a clipboard from seemingly nowhere, and read over the names. "Fuyuki-dono, Natsumi-dono, and Mama-dono, myself, Mois-Dono, Tamama and Momoka-dono, Dororo and Koyuki-dono, Saburo-dono, and Kogoro-dono and his sister. Gero, wait, Kogoro-dono?" Keroro flipped over his list again. "When did that happen?"

"Why are we celebrating this when we don't even know if she's really some sort of "project"?"

"Kuku, so you think I went back to Keron and kidnapped and infant, all for my own amusement?" Kururu laughed, although this wasn't exactly a laugh of amusement.

"I wouldn't hold it against you, is what I'm saying," Giroro grumbled darkly.

"Kuku, you have a hard time accepting anything of mine for face value, don't you? That or you're too dense to wrap your brain around it, ku ku ku."

"Honestly I don't know if you even have the ability to do something like that," Giroro snapped. Kururu's expression changed, and Keroro felt a heavy darkness fall upon the jolly room.

"I... I'll go see what plates Tamama Nitohei picked out for the party," Keroro said with a nervous grin, and then backed his way out of the room.

"Ku... Ku ku... You're doubting my intelligence then," Kururu said as more of a fact than a question to Giroro.

"You're the one who admitted you screwed up, here, not me."

"Ku ku kuuu..."

"Keroro... Take Kirere for a walk."

"Eh?" Keroro looked back at the two... What a thick air they were all now in... Giroro had said lots in the way of curses to Kururu, but a straight-out question of the Sergeant Major's intelligence...

"It's really not good weather out.... It's dark, and a bit chilly," Keroro answered, but the glare which Giroro gave, the chilling one, had Keroro heading over to the baby. "We'll go review some plans together."

"...I think they're serious this time." Keroro gave a bit of a shiver as he left them in the room. Giroro's yelling was getting louder, Kururu's laugh was ever the same. "...They're just relieving some stress, I'm sure!" As he got further from Kururu's lab, he began to hear pounding noises. "...Lotta stress."

An hour later, no one had returned from the lab. Well, no one had come to Keroro.

"Are they still going at it?" Tamama flipped a page of his comic book and took a sip from his juice box.

"Probably Giroro Gocho, at least. Knowing Socho he's just laughing... They haven't gone at it this long before, though," Keroro answered without looking up from the left armpiece of one of his weekly Gunpla models.

"Do we have to keep watching her? It's so boring!" Tamama muttered, looking over to Kirere, who crawled around Keroro's work area.

"Now, now, Kirere-chan has to learn early about Pekoponian culture, so it'll be easier to infiltrate," Keroro answered sagely.

"But she doesn't do anything!" Tamama muttered, and went back to his comic book. "...So boring."

"Hrm, now where'd that file go?" Keroro muttered, drowning out everything around him aside from the task at hand, the missing file.

Tamama was still blissfully reading his comic book when he became aware of an odd smell, a chemical-like odor, filling the room. He then looked up, and his eyes went wide. "Gunso-san!"

"Yes! Found it, gero gero gero!"

"GUNSO-SAN!" Tamama shouted. "She did something!"

"Yes, Tamama Ni-Gerrrrroooooooo!" the yell Keroro gave was one of the loudest he'd given in a while.

 

The Sergeant was panting by the time he reached Kururu's lab; the scientist was in his chair, eating curry, Giroro was on the floor, having long been there after yelling himself into exhaustion.

"I didn't mean it, I-I just looked away for a second, and, and..."

"Kuku, what're you going on about?"

"K-Kirere-chan, she must've mistaken s-some paint as candy, and-!"

"Eh?" Kururu hopped out of his chair, still holding the plate of curry from his dinner.

"What?" Giroro shouted, sitting up on the ground. "She ate paint?!"

"...gerooo..." Keroro looked quite grim.

Giroro made sure to include delivering a blow to the back of Keroro's head as he passed, and headed out of Kururu's lab with the scientist behind.


	4. Chapter 4

"Yes, Mama, she seems to be feeling better already," Natsumi answered, hanging up the phone and looking back on the couch to Giroro, who sat with his hands clasped, looking straight ahead. She took a seat next to him, and smiled a bit. "...You look worried."

"I can't imagine having to explain that to headquarters if it'd turned out for the worst," Giroro muttered.

"At least Dororo was able to get over here quick.... Say, where's Stupid Frog?"

Thunder sounded, and Giroro didn't even look away from the wall he was concentrating on. "The roof."

"Hrm. Good place for him. Remind him it' his night for dishes." Natsumi stood and stretched, and laughed a bit. "You can relax, Giroro. She'll be fine."

 

"Kuku, she's back to resting now...."

"....Babies are so gross," Tamama walked out next to Kururu, his eyes wide and his face sick-looking.

Giroro stood and walked over to the two, then Dororo joined them. "She'll be back to normal in no time, it was all a matter of making sure it got out of her system before it became deadly. Nothing an herbal remedy couldn't take care of," explained the ninja.

"Thank you again, Dororo," Giroro nodded.

"Well, I learned after--!" Dororo's smile faded, and his traumatized, glazed-over look materialized. "....Keroro-kun.... We were having lunch, and he told me it was chocolate milk he wanted to trade for my juice, but it was only regular milk, and he'd just put paint in it.... I was so sick afterward...."

Dororo retreated to the nearest corner, having activated his trauma switch, and there was another loud boom of thunder. The lights flickered this time.

"Kuku, sounds like it's getting closer."

"Good," Giroro muttered, heading toward the base. He still had his gun with him, from his showdown with Keroro while he waited for Dororo, and carried it at his side as he entered the nursery and looked into the crib. He looked downward; Kirere was now asleep again.

"....I'll wait here until you wake up." He took a seat on the ground, leaning against the crib and polishing his gun.

"Kuku, figured you would be here... Pekopon's made you so soft."

"Quit stalking me, Kururu. I had my piece with you," Giroro muttered, concentrating upon his gun.

"Just thought you'd like a little reading, ku ku ku," Kururu answered, revealing a folder in his right hand.

"What's this?" Giroro leaned forward and took the folder.

"Kuku, proving this isn't a trick," Kururu answered. "My curry's getting cold. Excuse me."

"Kururu, you really...? That's really...?"

"Ku ku! Unless it's involving a bend in the time-continuum, don't tell me I'm not capable. It wouldn't be good for you." Then the scientist was gone from the room.

Giroro flipped through the file, having been finally left alone; he didn't understand most of it, but he got the gist of it.

 

"And this is a medium range firearm," Giroro explained, and held it up. "You look out of the scope here, and lock in on your target this way."

"Meow...." Neko looked a bit worried as she watched this exchange, which took place the day after the scare Kirere had caused. It was a sunny day, and the char marks Keroro had made on the roof were still a fine crispy black. It smelt like they had had a barbecue.

"Ah, this is a personal favorite." Giroro opened a case and pulled out a large rifle, and Kirere sat there, as intent as a baby could. "At full power, this could blow a hole the size of the largest crater on Keron's moon."

While bending over to retrieve another weapon he had laid out on the mat, Kirere leaned and gripped onto his belt, "Hrm? This? It's a long story, but--"

"Stupid frog, can't do his chores, you'd think it was the first time he'd been struck by lightning," Natsumi grumbled as she stepped out, her arms full with a hefty laundry basket. "Giroro!"

"N-Natsumi!" he came to attention and sat back on the mat. Kirere laughed.

"What're you doing!?"

"...Well, she has to learn early." Giroro looked downward as he spoke. "It's part of her training."

"Wait. Why're you being so nurturing all of a sudden?"

"Well.... If no one else is capable enough, I suppose I have to take over as best I can. It's better than Keroro or any of those other lunatics being left with her." Giroro folded his arms and closed his eyes, doing his best to keep a cool looking going.

"What're you doing out here with all of this, anyway?" she bent down next to him, causing a small blush to come across Giroro's cheeks.

"W-well, just some of the basic weapons and their uses. We're training her as our secret weapon, she has to learn early." He was too flustered to notice exactly what Kirere had grabbed ahold now. He was only blown back along with Natsumi from a sudden blast, Natsumi landing on top of him and the sheets flying everywhere.

Fuyuki looked out from the large fresh hole, which was made inches from where he had been standing, looking for a book he'd misplaced. He was clearly shaken, and looked out, wide-eyed.

Natsumi stood up and looked about at the mess. Giroro, too, recovered after a moment, and sat up, his head still spinning. Kirere sat there and laughed, and Natsumi glared down at him, having gone into demon mode.

 

"Giroro Goucho, how nice of you to take over laundry duty in my absence!" Keroro smiled as he hobbled in on a set of crutches, still pretty banged up from the day before, and saw Giroro glaring at the washer/dryer, his arms folded.

"Hrm, I wanted to ask when did we put in a new window, and one so... Conspicuous?"Keroro asked, Giroro still didn't answer. "I just wanted to throw out another apology... Gero, no hard feelings, I hope."

"Keroro.... Another word and I'll have you in here just in time for the spin cycle," Giroro hissed through grit teeth.

"Hehe... Goucho has such a weird sense of humor sometimes." Keroro shook his head and hobbled off toward the kitchen.

"Mm, all right, Mama," Natsumi was leaning against the counter and on the phone. "We will.... Don't worry, I won't. Bye, Mama."

"Another late night? Well, don't mind me, I'm just getting a snack." Keroro grinned good-humoredly and headed to the fridge.

"Not so fast. We need the wall fixed," Natsumi announced as he reached the fridge. Keroro hung his head and sighed.

"Kururu Soucho needs to invent an effective brainwashing gun," Keroro sighed as he went off to his task.

 

"Ku ku...I have, it's out of my hands as to how he uses them," Kururu muttered from his lab, a hand puppet on one hand and Kirere on his lap. She grabbed onto his glasses, but he quickly took these back and pushed them up. "Kuku, no, no, I have an image to keep up here."

Kirere then shifted her attention back to the green Keroro hand puppet, while Kururu resumed work as usual.

"Hrm?" his attention turned to a screen on the far right. "What's that...?"

"You overloaded it!" came a shout from the speaker under another screen. The washer was spewing out soap and water all over the room; it wouldn't take long for the entire room to flood at the rate it was going.

"I-I did no such thing!"

"You can clean this up, too!"

"What?! Do I look like Keroro!?"

"Kuku." Kururu got a small chuckle from this, then looked back to the screen he had originally been focused on. Whatever blip there was before was gone. "Eh?"

 

"What smells like bleach?" Tamama sniffed the air as he headed down to the debriefing room beside Giroro. Giroro only grit his teeth and remained in his perpetually pissed-off mode.

"All right, so it's the pastel pink plates!" Keroro's meeting had revolved around party plans for the first twenty minutes, and only came to a halt when Giroro finally snapped.

"How does this have ANYTHING to do with our mission?!" demanded the red alien. "Stick to the topic!"

"Gero... Very well, then." Keroro was a bit crestfallen at being interrupted, but it was nothing to be unexpected from Giroro. "Moving on, our next invasion strategy... Operation Get 'um While they're Young!"

"Eh?" Giroro blinked as the lights dimmed and the screen came on.

"Given our recent experience my plan is this. A Pekonponian Daycare. We mold the children's minds from a young age, given their impressionability, we ought to have an effective army in no time! Gero gero, recruiting little minds while in their prime..."

"Idiot! You had one kid with you for five minutes and you nearly killed her!" Giroro snapped.

"It was so gross..." Tamama recalled, his eyes going wide once more.

"...Kukuku, you could always try out our new weapon."

"What?" Giroro snapped.

"Kuku, it's still in it... Infancy stages, Teicho, but I think now would be a good time to test out her potential."

"The more field experience, the better!" Keroro grinned. "Pekopon will be a mere training ground for her! And once it falls to its knees and bows to us, who knows what next?! All of the Gunpla factories in the world, ours, gero gero."

Giroro obviously was wary of this, but, it was for the invasion...

Giroro stood, "I need to be excused."

"That's fine. Meeting adjourned for now, I'll see everyone back here in the morning!"

Dororo looked from the hidden spot he had been lurking in, and replaced the tile only after feeling the bite of dejection once again upon being forgotten.

"Kuku, you have a big day, then," Kururu said to the baby, lifting her up and heading back to her nursery.

"She better not get sick again," Tamama muttered hoarsely.

Giroro returned to his tent after the meeting, skipping out on dinner and baking himself a sweet potato instead. The hole in wall had been repaired, and his weapons put back away.

"Hrm?" he looked upward to the few stars he could see in the sky of the brightly lit Tokyo, and noted one falling one. Pekoponians sometimes wished on these, he heard. Another one of their stupid superstitions.


	5. Chapter 5

The following morning, they all agreed to meet in Tamama's training area in the Nishizawa mansion, Kururu bringing along both the aging gun and the super soldier, who was focused intently upon a rubber ball Kururu had brought to keep her entertained. It was something to keep her away from his earphones, which she had taken a liking to pulling back and watching him recoil in pain.

"All right, Kururu Socho, let's make sure this sleeper cell does more than just sleep!" Keroro said cheerfully.

"And puke," Tamama muttered.

'I've got a bad feeling about this," Giroro thought to himself as he, too stood there, along with Tamama, Kururu, and Dororo. 'The last time we tried to make a super soldier... Natsumi...'

Kururu set down the baby and then stood back, taking out the gun and taking aim.

Giroro didn't look at first, but then felt compelled after hearing nothing but dead silence in the room.

"She's so...." Tamama began.

"Kururu Soucho, she's a little short, even by our standards," Keroro laughed and pointed down to the child, who now stood up to his shoulders.

"That's the oldest I can make her safely for now, until I make another model of the gun. Kuku, her genetic structure's not exactly the same as ours, some corners had to be clipped, kukukuu!" Kururu explained, putting the gun to his side. "If you want to be technical, Teicho, she's about eleven."

"That's the oldest you can make her?" Keroro's voice fell as he continued to point to the bewildered child.

"Kuku, well, I told you there were a few bugs!"

"Yes, but...."

She was too cute, Tamama though with a glare. She could pose a potential problem to group dynamic.

"Eh? What happened? Why's everything so much smaller again?" She blinked and looked about at the group. She looked similar to a young Pururu, save for the coloring, and the purple earmuffs had been replaced by headphones. On her one wrist there was a black band, with a silver buckle in the middle.

"Okaaaayyyyy so, slight change of plans." Keroro clasped his hands together and grinned. "Kirere-chan, why don't you show us what you can do?"

"Do?" she repeated, and Keroro pushed her over to a dummy, and placed a gun in her hand.

Keroro took a few steps back and placed his hands behind his back, and waited. Kirere looked at the gun and studied it, then took fire. The dummy had been missed totally, and there was another hole in yet another wall.

"Gero?" Keroro pushed her forward a few more feet. Another miss, another hole.

Five more feet. She knicked the dummy this time.

She finally managed a hit from five feet. There was a general feeling of doom spread out about the room.

"....Well, shooting's not for everyone!" Keroro answered with a grin, although the happy one was replaced by a much, much more nervous one. "Maybe you'd fare better with a blade."

"Kuku, I wouldn't try that," Kururu chuckled. "I almost lost my head, last time."

"....Intelligence could be the way to go!" Keroro answered cheerfully, revealing a paper test and #2 pencil. "Have at it, Kirere-chan!"

"Okay." She looked down at it as she took it from Keroro's hands and looked it over.

"....Gunso-san, she stinks," Tamama said flatly after she was out of earshot and the five stood around in a circle, waiting for her to finish.

"Now, now, Tamama Nitohei, let's give her a benefit of a doubt," Keroro said hopefully. "She could just have her own niche! Like your advanced fighting abilities, Kururu Soucho's supreme intelligence, Giroro Goucho's vast expertise in weaponry, and my steady and unfaltering leadership abilities!"

"Um, K-Keroro-kun?" Dororo sputtered.

"Leadership abilities? That's what you think you bring to the table?" Giroro snorted. Kururu gave a chuckle.

"Here, done," Kirere passed the paper to Kururu, who adjusted his glasses and scanned it over. Question twelve had told her to find the "x" on the triangle, and she had indeed circled the "x". The rest of the answers weren't much better.

"....Gero," Keroro murmured. The cloud of dread was apparent in the room. "We... We should call it a day." 

Tamama, nodded, Dororo cleared his throat and looked away, Kururu gave a chuckle, and Giroro... Just kept looking at the young girl. She looked a great deal like him at that age, aside from the eyes.

"Ku ku, back you go, then." Kururu went to hold up the gun to Kirere, but found it wasn't at his side, as it had been before. "Eh?... Well, I guess you're stuck like that for now, then. Any alteration of your structure has to be changed back manually, kuku."

Kirere looked more relieved than anything, Giroro noted, and she watched as Tamama, Keroro, and Kururu left the training area.

"This sucks..." Tamama muttered.

"I'm reallyyyy in a hole, aren't I?" Keroro laughed, a heavy gloom cloud still over him.

"Kuku, perhaps I'd have been better off focusing on some of my other weapons..." Kururu added beneath his breath.

"Giroro-kun, did you want me to try to get through to her?" Dororo suggested quietly, seeing as the child was close to tears and shaking.

She rushed past them, nearly knocking down Giroro, and hurried out of the training room.

"W-wait, where do you think you're going?!" Giroro called out, then balled his fists. "She's going to get killed or get us found out! Dororo!"

Dororo gave a nod and was gone from sight. Giroro went to go catch up with the other three.

"Those three... Time for them to learn a lesson themselves."

It took a bit of searching, but Dororo finally found the pink Keron child up in a tree outside of the Nishizawa property. "Kirere-chan?"

"Who're you?" she sniffed and turned to him. Dororo jerked back at this, and had to remind himself that she was indeed still just a child.

"D-Dororo Heicho. A member of the platoon," he answered.

"I don't remember you being there...."

"...W-well, I was... I'm not going to hurt you; your father wanted me to find you. You could've been in a lot of danger!"

"I don't even know what's going on," she answered, wiping her eyes. "One minute I was small, and next..."

"You're supposed to be another fighter in Teicho's platoon." Dororo took a seat on the branch next to her. "Kururu-dono thought you'd be some sort of super fighter, from what I can tell. I got left out of a lot of the details."

"I'm not as good as they thought, right? I mean, that's what they meant when they said I sucked."

"Kirere-chan, you heard that?"

Kirere nodded. "Yeah, my hearing's pretty good...."

"Like Giroro-kun's, I see. You have to walk before you can run. It's a popular saying on Pekopon," Dororo answered. "There's probably a lot of potential in you, but no one wants to take the time to find it... A garden's much prettier if you give it time to grow, and not rush it."

"Is that another Pekopon saying?"

"That's a fact." He stood and looked down at her. "Do you want to go home, now? It's not safe for either of us to be off of the Nishizawa property when we can be seen."

"Please." She nodded, her crying having stopped by now. Dororo lifted her up, and she was fast asleep by the time Dororo returned to Giroro's tent.

"Is she....?" Giroro looked down at the child.

"She'll be fine, she's just upset," Dororo answered, his eyes showing a grin beneath his mask. "Where are the others?"

"That doesn't matter, thank you, Dororo." Giroro walked over and took the child from his friend's arms.

"Anytime. Now I have to get back, Koyuki-dono will be worried," Dororo stepped back out of the tent, and was gone from Giroro's sight in moments.

Giroro looked back down at Kirere, and laid her on the blanket after giving a sigh.

"Mew," Neko peered into the tent, and came closer to sniff the new person in the tent.

Giroro looked to Kirere, then to the "do your life over" gun, which he had stashed among the rest of his arsenal. Kururu probably knew it was he who had stolen it, but said nothing for one reason or another. Those three wouldn't be talking for the rest of the night or day, at any rate.

He fell asleep sitting up, leading to stiff joints when he woke up in the morning. He gave a yell as he saw a pair of large blue eyes staring back at him.

"Sorry!" Kirere yelped, and jumped back. "I-I.... You're Giroro, right? You're one of my parents? I think you are."

"W-well, yes." Giroro had now regained his bearings and shook his head a bit. Yes, this was really happening; this wasn't some kind of dream or nightmare.

"Where's my mother?"

"He's not your mother, and he's probably in a body cast after the lesson I gave him," Giroro answered. "....You're really here, aren't you? This isn't some delusion."

"I'm pretty sure." She blinked. "I remember taking some kinds of tests, then a lot of nothing, except maybe some yelling... And now I'm back here."

Giroro continued to look her over, only jerked out of his studying the young child by a growling in her stomach, "....We'll get you something to eat."

"Do you have anything spicy?" she asked intently.

"We'll find something, as long as it's not more paint," Giroro muttered, and stood.

 

Natsumi nearly dropped her glass of juice as she watched Giroro walk in, Kirere behind him, "W-what happened now?!"

"Kururu," Giroro grumbled.

"Is that my mom?" Kirere pointed to Natsumi, nothing the similar color of her skin and Natsumi's hair.

Giroro's face went a deep shade of crimson. "N-no! She's not! A Pekoponian, are you serious!? HA HA HA!"

"....Then why...?"

"Let's see, there's cereal, rice, bread...." Giroro had quit his forced laugh and zoomed over to the shelves, and was reading out the labels of any food he could find.

"'Morning, Nee-chan. Hey, Kirere! She's all grown up!" Fuyuki gasped. "I had no idea Keronians aged that quick!"

"Cereal's a good choice!" Giroro then tossed the box in Kirere's direction, only to have it hit her square on the head. The squeak she made as she hit the ground was adorable, but Giroro was too busy being horrified. There was a split second when he thought the box had done her in.

"Kirere?!" He hopped down from the counter and ran over to her.

"Owwww...." She sat up and rubbed her forehead. "I saw stars...."

"Are you sure she's all right, Goucho?" Fuyuki blinked, and watched as Giroro helped the young girl up.

"It's just a bump," Giroro answered nonchalantly.

"Guess I'm not good at catching, either," Kirere said to herself.

"Fuyuki, we'll be late." Natsumi picked up her schoolbag and looked to her brother. "Giroro, are you going to be...?"

"We'll be fine," Giroro nodded.

"....Okay." Natsumi seemed a bit unsure but left with her brother all the same.

"Sorry I couldn't catch that," Kirere sighed once more.

"There's no use in apologies, it's happened," Giroro answered, and headed down to the base with her close behind.

"Ku ku, I wondered what happened to you." Kururu turned about in his chair, revealing two black eyes and an arm in a sling. Kirere immediately lit up at the sight of Kururu, and Giroro continued to stare down the scientist. "I think I might have actually been starting to worry, ku ku!"

"And yet you didn't come looking?" Giroro snapped.

"I didn't wake up until about three in the morning.... On the floor, kukuku.... Good to know you've still got your right hook, Senpai."

"And the left one, too," Giroro muttered. "We're going to the shooting range."

"The shooting range?" Kirere asked.

"Kuku, good, I need some results." Kururu turned back about to his screens. "An organic-based weapon's no good if it can lose against a cereal box."

"Come on, Kirere." Giroro glared at the back of the chair, and then headed down to the shooting range with Kirere at his side. "We have to get to work."

"Work?" Kirere caught the pair of earphones Giroro tossed to her, and put these on, then stood back as he went to work on the shooting range. 

Perfect shots, every one.

"Now you try." Giroro stood back, allowing her to take her turn shooting. "Try not to hit the wall this time."

"Huh?" She looked back at him, and her trigger finger pulled at the same time. The shot fired, but at the base of the target. It toppled over onto the ground. ."..Hey, I hit it!"

"....Y-yes, you did," Giroro couldn't crush the victorious grin. He just... Couldn't.

"Giroro Gocho!" Keroro hobbled with a small limp and with the support of a crutch, Mois not far behind him. "You seem in better spirits this morning!" Giroro raised the gun toward Keroro's head. "Or I could have called it wrong."

"Kirere-chan? Could you say, a rapid progression?" Mois blinked, looking down at the tiny Keronian.

"We're training here, Keroro," Giroro snapped. "So unless it's useful...."

"Gero, I just wanted to welcome Kirere-chan to the platoon,"Keroro answered innocently. This angelic smile was gone as soon as another shot was fired, this one bouncing off the wall and nearly shooting Giroro and Kirere. He managed to hit the ground with the young girl just in time, and the laser hit Keroro.

"....Ge...Gero," he coughed before hitting the ground.

"He's survived worse," Giroro answered as Kirere went to go check on Keroro.

"Ojii-sama?" Mois knelt down and shook her uncle.

"Are you sure he's..."

"He'll be fine, don't pity him, it only encourages him," Giroro answered in his usual blunt manner. "So you need work in shooting.... We'll find something else you excel in."

After the day, it was found Kirere did not excel in swordsmanship, hacking, physical combat, harnessing her chi, medical arts, cooking... Even sewing had resulted in Giroro having to pull out the needle from Kirere's hand while she screamed.

Kirere trudged back to the lab by herself, having left Giroro at his tent. His disappointment was evident.

"Ku ku, no results, then?" She heard after attempting to slink into the lab as quietly as possible. There were blue sparks coming from Kururu's work area, and the yellow Keronian wore a welding mask. "Kuku, at least you were managing average before."

Kirere walked over to him, and Kururu lifted up the welding mask, to get a better look at what she was so interested in. She looked over the work table, and picked up a converter to study it.

"What's this do?"

"Kuku, you wouldn't understand it," Kururu answered with a snort. "Hrm?" he noted her continuing to fiddle with the parts. He waited to go back to welding together, and watched her begin to piece together the machine.

"....That was kind of fun," she admitted.

"Kuku, do you even realize what you just made?"

"No, but it looked like it went together... I mean, the pieces seemed to fit and all," she put the machine back down and looked up at Kururu.

"Kukuku...." the scientist gave an amused, if not a bit dark chuckle at this. "Looks like I have a little more work to do. You can sleep in the hammock for the time being."

His dark plotting came to a screeching halt as he felt a sudden warmth; at first, he wasn't sure what it was, but recoiled back as soon as he realized the young girl had wrapped her arms about his waist.

"Ugh! Hey, don't do that!" Kururu snapped, and backed away from her, then leaned against the table. "If you're looking for the mushy type, go to your other genetic donor! Just... Don't do that."

"A-all right," she nodded, still a bit confused at his reaction, or the fact he had even shown one.

Kururu was still panting, then shook his head and pulled the welding mask down over his face. "I don't know if I'll be able to handle another attack like that."


	6. Chapter 6

"After a good night's rest, I'm happy to report I have nearly fully healed, and only the psychological scars remain!" Keroro chirped happily the next morning at the meeting.

"Where's that other fool, he has to be here, too," Giroro grumbled, clutching onto his desk.

"He said not to get him unless it was life or death, and even then he'd have to think about it," Kirere answered. "He said he had to recover from some kind of trauma."

"Heh, he's probably just slacking off again," Giroro snorted, and glanced over to Kirere; she was kicking back and forth while Keroro carried on, looking about and obviously bored. He didn't notice her slip out of the meeting while he began to yell at Keroro over the latest bound-for-failure invasion strategy.

"Kuku, looks as though we have someone missing." Kururu crept into the meeting at the tail end and took a seat in between Tamama and Giroro.

"Kururu-dono, I'm here," Dororo answered with a grin beneath his mask, pointing to himself.

"Not you," Kururu answered curtly.

"K-Kirere-chan!" Giroro jumped out of his seat and bolted out of the room.

"I.... I wasn't done...." Keroro muttered.

"Could you say, a worried mother hen?" Mois added, blinking at the dust cloud Giroro left in his wake.

 

 

"Andddd here!" Kirere grinned, snapping an arm on the figure into place and grinning at her handiwork. She had newspaper spread on the ground, Keroro's toolbox opened with the necessary tools spread out about her, and the beginnings of a Gunpla model in her hand. "..Mm, this looks like it works...."

"Kirere-chan!?"

"Giroro-san?" Kirere turned about, and saw the red Keronian leaned against the doorway to the underground base. "Are you okay?... You look like you're going to pass out!"

"Wh-wha...."

"Ge-Gerooo! Wh-what're you doing!?" Keroro yelped, running past Giroro and staring down at the child in disbelief.

"I... I saw it here, and it looked like a lot of fun...."

"I'm surprised you didn't hurt yourself on that, too," Tamama sighed as he walked out, followed by Dororo and Kururu.

"Please tell me you were at least following the directions!" Keroro moaned, picking up the box.

"It has directions?" Kirere asked earnestly.

"....You did this.... Without directions?" Giroro lifted up the partially-finished model from her hands and studied it.

"Well, Keroro-san did some already, and I just saw one piece that seemed to go into one another, and they kept adding up as I went along... I'm really sorry, Keroro-san, I'll make it up to you!"

"You didn't paint it...." was all Keroro answered with dully.

"Hrm." Giroro took a seat cross-legged on the ground and leaned over, placing a hand on top of her head and turning her around. Kururu got a bit of a chuckle out of this, and Tamama, Keroro, and Dororo watched as Giroro took his own gun and disassembled it on the ground out of her sight. He then stood and turned her back around.

"Now try to put that back together," he instructed, "but don't fire it," Kirere nodded, and began to take the pieces and place them in their proper spots. Giroro could have put the gun together quicker, but for someone who'd never seen the workings of the gun before Kirere did an exceptional job.

"Guess she's not totally useless, after all," Tamama said, breaking the silence while Giroro inspected her handiwork.

"Ku ku! Seems as though she has a mind for puzzles," Kururu chuckled.

"Seems in good condition," Giroro remarked, and looked down at her. "What else can you do that with, I wonder?"

"We'll see, as of now I have a few more things to do," Kururu answered, that quasi-ominous tone in his voice.

"He really likes to be left by himself a lot," Kirere said as she stood up next to Giroro.

"I'm all right with that," Giroro answered with a huff.

"See? You were good at something after all, Kirere-chan." Dororo stepped forward and patted the young girl on the head. "It was all a matter of believing in yourself!"

"Thanks, Doro-kun," answered Kirere with a smile.

'Doro... kun?' repeated in Giroro.s mind... That, paired up with the beaming smile Kirere gave the ninja... He knew that smile...

'You're joking,' He thought, and his shoulders slumped a bit at his realization.

"Are you staying to help Keroro-san?" Kirere asked, then both looked over to Keroro, who was still focused on the Gunpla. He had balled himself into Dororo's familiar trauma-switch position.

".....I think he's got a lot of his plate, as is," Dororo answered with a nervous twitter of a laugh, and then jumped up to his ceiling exit. "Bye, Kirere-chan!"

"Bye, Dororo-kun!" Kirere waved the ninja off and looked to Giroro, and gave another happy smile.

'Too... Cute... She's too damn cute." Tamama's eye twitched a bit as he watched this exchange. And then his poor Sergeant...

"Get over it, you mainly complained about how you didn't even like that model, anyway," Giroro snapped in Keroro's direction as he led Kirere out of the room.

"....There isn't room for something like that, especially if all she's going to do is cause Gunso-san pain!" Tamama's jealousy was beginning to boil over as he was left standing there with Keroro still in the same corner. 'We already have the cute one of the group, damn it!'

"Where're we going?" Kirere asked, following Giroro as quickly as he small legs could manage.

"Some place you'll find fun," Giroro answered, hopping onto his hovercraft and motioning for her to join him. Kirere hopped on, clutching about his waist, and Giroro took off.

 

"Wow...." she gasped at the view they now both had from high above the ground. "Look at how many people there are!"

"And Keron will rule them all one day soon," Giroro added, continuing to look forward toward the destination.

"Keron?"

"The planet where you... Well, your race is from," Giroro explained. "We're here to take this all over and claim it in the name of Keron."

"And your girlfriend's okay with that?"

"M-my what!?"

"The girl whose picture you have on your belt!" Kirere answered, not able to see Giroro's face growing increasingly red.

"T-t-that was there when I bought it!" Giroro sputtered. "I just never took the time to c-change the photo!... She's not my girlfriend, she's just another Pekoponian. And you shouldn't be looking in peoples' things without permission to begin with!"

"Sorry... But you like her?"

"We're here," Giroro answered gruffly, landing the craft in the middle of a junkyard and switching both himself and Kirere to invisibility mode.

"W-wow, what is this place?!" Kirere gasped, looking about at the piles of junk. Giroro saw a rat and shot at it.

"Be careful here," he answered, putting the gun back at this side. "It should be quiet about this time of the day... It's primitive technology but it's a... Start... Kirere-chan!"

"Wheee!" She went running over a car hood and jumping over the other side, then shuffling through the pieces she found there.

"Hehe." Giroro merely gave a small smile at this, bemused at the child's raw excitement.

He waited a good couple of hours before fetching Kirere from a project she had gotten to work on... He wasn't sure what it was supposed to be, but it had a great deal of wiring, and tubes going down either side of its long body, and Kirere seemed extremely proud of it.

"We'll go back another day." He reassured her as they headed home. She was clearly sad about leaving the junkyard behind, but didn't protest beyond a small moan.

 

 

"Whew!" Keroro wiped his forehead with his arm and smiled at his handiwork; tile floors smooth enough to see one's reflection in, carpet fluffy soft and with the sweet smell of cleaner prevalent. "Nothing like a full day's worth of work at barely the wage minimum to keep one's soul strong!"

"We're home!" Giroro announced as he slid open the glass door, Kirere running in and nearly knocking him back.

"Keroro-san! I just wanted to say again... How sorry I was...."

"Gero gero! Don't worry about it, Kirere-chan." Keroro patted the tot on the head and smiled. "After a brief mental collapse I realized that Gunpla is a hard hobby for anyone to resist, and I had four of those same common models in reserve anyway!"

"You mean it?!"

"Of course," he answered with a saintly grin. "Hehe, now run along."

"Go get a bath." Giroro instructed her, and she gave a groan, but went rushing off to the bathroom all the same.

"Oh, childhood, what a pleasant time," Keroro laughed warmly, then opened his eyes. It was then he noticed the dirt on his hand from where he had patted Kirere on the head. "Gero?"

He then looked down at the tile, and the carpet, and followed the trail of tiny dirt footprints running from outside and towards the bathroom. "Eh.... eh... GEROOOO!"

 

"Hrm." Giroro turned his head a bit towards the living room.

"What was that?" Kirere looked past Giroro to try to get a better look, but then turned her attention back to Giroro as he spoke.

"A duck, probably. Get in, I'll get you towels," Giroro said, and she nodded and slid open the door, nearly slamming it shut as she noticed someone already in there.

"Kirere-chan?" Natsumi leaned forward a bit. "Was that you?"

"Yes!"

"You can come in." The door slid open again, and Natsumi gasped. "What happened to you? You're a mess!"

"Giroro-san took me to a really fun place, full of machines, and I got to build whatever I wanted!"

"Well, why don't you tell me about it while you wash off?" Natsumi suggested, and Kirere nodded.

"Kirere, here, I--" Giroro opened the door, towels in hand. His eyes went white and his face beet red as he locked eyes with Natsumi.

"What do you think you're DOING?!" Natsumi screeched, and flying out the window Giroro went.

"Woah... You're really strong...." Kirere gasped, clearly impressed by this show of strength, more so than by the fact Natsumi had made a field goal with Giroro into the next door neighbor's yard.

"That jerk," Natsumi grumbled, and sunk deeper down in the bath.

After a bath and making sure Giroro's injuries weren't too, too severe (he had recovered quickly and was still red in the face at the thought of what he had walked in on) Kirere walked back down to the lab, where Kururu was whiling away on yet another invention.

"Ku ku, did you and Giroro Senpai have a good time?"

"Yeah, it was great!" Kirere answered excitedly. "Except for about a half hour ago... Natsumi-san threw Giroro-san out of a window... And Keroro-san's been crying, but won't say why."

"Kukuku! Pekoponian trash seems to interest you a lot. Maybe if you keep showing progress I'll give you something Keronian to fiddle around with, show you what real power is."

"R-really?" She went to hug him, but suddenly remembered, and resisted the urge to do so.

Kururu glanced at a screen with the time clearly written and gave a small noise of interest. "Lunch time, ku ku..."

"It's eight at night," Kirere answered, puzzled.

"I keep... Strange hours," Kururu answered, followed by a chuckle.

"Well, I want some of what you're having."

"Heh, you couldn't take it, kuku," Kururu answered with a snort as he headed to the large pot he had set up in a corner of his lab. "This is a man's curry, not meant for some little tadpole... But if you insist on torturing yourself..." He passed her a plate and took a seat in his chair after making a plate for himself; he was a bit surprised as the child wolfed down the spicy curry without barely giving a blink. "Kuku, if you can eat that and like it, I can guarantee you'll never go hungry."

Kirere sat cross-legged on the ground by the chair as she ate, looking at all of the different screens along with Kururu, who sat there blankly, the images reflecting off of the lenses of his glasses. She gave a yawn after setting her plate on the floor and sat back.

"Tch, it's your bedtime," Kururu announced as he saw this. "I have some work to get to, myself, and I don't need a child running about, kukuku. You'll only be in my way."

He took his plate of curry with him as she trudged to her bedroom, giving another yawn. Her tired eyes opened as she walked into the room, and saw it had been completely overhauled, and was now a proper eleven-year-old girl's room, done in mainly pinks and purples.

"Wow, you did this?!"

"You couldn't have slept in the crib," Kururu answered, and noticed her fidgeting. "...If you really have to get it out of your system, hug this...." he revealed a yellow hand puppet, and she did just this while he stifled a shudder.

"Good night, Kururu-san!"

"It's still early; we'll see how it goes," he answered in his usual mumble, turning out of the bedroom.

It was a few hours later Kirere woke up to use the bathroom, and on her trip back she decided to see exactly what he hadn't wanted her around for. There was no great invention anywhere to be seen, only a passed out scientist slumped over his worktable, small, insignificant gadgets all about him. She grabbed a blanket from his hammock and tossed this over him; he stirred a bit and she took a step back, then took a few more cautious steps forward and removed his glasses, setting these on the table in front of him.

"Hrm..." he looked sound asleep enough. She waved a hand in front of his face a few times; nothing. She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, having to rise on her tiptoes to do so. He fidgeted a bit again, and his light snoring sounded a lot like his laugh. She broke away from him, and walked back to her room. "Good night, Kururu-san."


End file.
